See

discussions, stats, and author profiles for this publication at: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/270507951

Perceived Organizational Climate and

Organizational Tenure on Organizational
Citizenship Behaviour: Empirical Study
among...

Article · October 2013

CITATIONS READS

2 685

1 author:

Collins Badu Agyemang

University of Professional Studies
18 PUBLICATIONS 7 CITATIONS

SEE PROFILE

Some of the authors of this publication are also working on these related projects:

Middlemen in Ghana's Retail and Service Industry- Entrepreneurs or Opportunists ? View project

THE IMPACT OF ETHICAL LEADERSHIP ON COUNTERPRODUCTIVE WORK BEHAVIOURS; A CASE STUDY

OF MINISTRY OF COMMUNICATION View project

All content following this page was uploaded by Collins Badu Agyemang on 06 January 2015.

The user has requested enhancement of the downloaded file.

European Journal of Business and Management www.iiste.org
ISSN 2222-1905 (Paper) ISSN 2222-2839 (Online)
Vol.5, No.26, 2013

Perceived Organizational Climate and Organizational Tenure on

Organizational Citizenship Behaviour: Empirical Study among
Ghanaian Banks
Collins Badu Agyemang
Faculty of Management, Department of Business Administration, University of Professional Studies, Accra
E-mail: agyemang.collins@yahoo.com

Abstract
Research into organizational citizenship behaviour has engaged the attention of Industrial and Organizational
Psychologist in recent times with a lot of focus devoted to identifying the antecedents of such behaviours. The
researcher sought to determine the extent to which engagement in organizational citizenship behaviour was
influenced by perceived organizational climate and organizational tenure of employees in the banking industry of
Ghana. Using correlational and cross-sectional survey designs, the researcher drew 152 respondents
conveniently from the banks involved in the study. Pearson Product-Moment correlation and Independent t-tests
were the statistical tools used for the analysis of the 2 hypotheses. Analysis of results indicates that employee’s
perception of organizational climate positively influenced OCB. There was no significant relationship between
bankers’ organizational tenure and OCB in the Ghanaian context. This study provides human resource
practitioners with insights into the relationship between perceived organizational climate, tenure and OCB as a
desirable work attitude. The implications of the study are discussed.
Keywords: Social Exchange Theory, Organizational Climate, Organizational Tenure, Organizational Citizenship
Behaviour, Ghana

1. Introduction
Organizational Citizenship Behaviour (OCB) is a construct that enjoins employees to willingly exceed or go
beyond their formal and principal job requirements (Organ & Ryan, 1995). The increasing downsizing and
complexity of jobs suggests that there is more to do in the workplace and fewer people to do it than ever before.
In today’s dynamic workplace, flexibility and innovativeness is increasingly becoming critical especially in most
service oriented organizations (Robbins, 2005). As suggested by Organ (1988), the effective functioning of an
organization depends on employee efforts that extend beyond formal role requirements.
A number of studies (e.g. Brockner & Wiesenfeld, 1996) have considered how other predictive variables pair up
with organizational climate to predict some organizational outputs. With reference to Ghanaian organizations; a
critical review suggests that several dimensions of OCB, such as altruism, conscientiousness, and civic virtue,
may match the norms of a collectivistic society such as Ghana (Hofstede, 2001; Nukunya, 2003). This study
however, is principally investigating organizational climate and organizational tenure and a different outcome
variable (i.e. OCB) among banking organizations in Ghana. Specifically, to what extent do Organizational
Climate and Job Tenure influence employees’ demonstration of OCB in Ghana? The service industry of Ghana
seem to be more open to international competition and as people to people interaction in most sector
organizations of Ghana rapidly keeps growing, most employees are expected to be self-regulating. In an effort to
embrace quality service provision amidst competition, most service oriented organizations have increasingly
greater expectations for workers to become self-directed. That is to say the individual employee is thus expected
to decipher and solve problems on their own in carrying out their work. Such improved customer responsiveness
demands that employees become innovative, make decisions faster, unlock their creativity and manage ideas to
these changing customer demands.
The rationale for the study is principally spurred by the flagrant scantiness of empirical literature on job tenure
and organizational climate perceptions together influence bankers performance of OCB among Ghanaians. It is
therefore important that a study be done to examine workers perception of their work atmosphere and the extent
to which they would go the extra mile to perform unassigned roles in the organization.
Statement of Problem
Demonstrating OCB seems to be vital as many significant changes in organizational structures and practices
have been taking place over the past two decades in Ghana. In as much as the description of one’s work

132
European Journal of Business and Management www.iiste.org
ISSN 2222-1905 (Paper) ISSN 2222-2839 (Online)
Vol.5, No.26, 2013

environment or situation may be directly affected by his or her satisfaction with that environment (Johannesson,
1973), it is important that research attention be given to employees’ work climate in the growing service sector
of Ghana. Schneider (1990) conceptualized Organizational Climate (OC) as employee’s perceptions of what the
organization is like in terms of practices, policies, procedures, routines and rewards. In a sense, organizational
climate focuses on how organizational participants experience and make sense of their organizations (Schneider,
2000). Climate as a concept does exemplify understanding the psychological phenomena in organizations. In a
similar vein, the organizational tenure of an employee has the tendency to influence the employees’ attachment
to the organization and hence, desire to engage in positive behaviours in the organization. Thus, the researchers
anticipate that, high tenure employees would go the extra mile to engage in other activities in the organization
apart from their officially assigned tasks. Against this backdrop, the researchers examined the influence of
perceived organizational climate and organizational tenure on OCB in the Ghanaian banking industry.
Objectives of the Study
• To ferret out the relationship between Organizational Climate and OCB.
• To ascertain whether or not tenure of Ghanaian employees tend to promote their OCB
Literature Review
Theoretical Framework
The study was grounded in the social exchange theory (Blau, 1964). By Blau’s (1964) argument, social exchange
usually occurs when individuals provide valued services to others, others typically respond with a certain level of
obligation in response to and exchange for these services. According to him, it encompasses the voluntary
exchange benefit that occurs between two parties especially between an employer and employee. The social
exchange theory mentioned by Blau (1964) tends to offer an explanation that forms the theoretical basis of this
study. Similar sentiments about social exchange theory were expressed by scholars that, the relationship between
an organization in general and its members has increasingly been conceptualized as one of an exchange, with
mutual obligations occurring on the part of the parties to exchange (Aryee & Chay, 2001). Organ (1988) for
instance proposed a social exchange explanation whereby employees perform citizenship behaviors to
reciprocate the fair treatment offered by the organization. Predicated upon the social exchange perspective, he
also proposed an explanation whereby employees perform OCB to reciprocate the fair treatment offered by their
organizations.
Review of Related Studies
Biswas and Varma (2007) designed a model to test the relationship between psychological climate and employee
performance with OCB and job satisfaction as mediating variables in the Indian environment using 357
managerial employees in the manufacturing and service sectors. Their aim was to understand better the
conditions that foster high levels of in-role and extra-role performance. Biswas and Varma (2007) did well in
carrying out such a study in a collectivist cultural setting and in a country experiencing many work
environmental changes. These notwithstanding, a significant majority of the respondents were males (83.9 %).
Over reliance on data obtained from a predominantly male sample constrains the generalizability of findings to
women. Research evidence suggests that reactions to justice perceptions are moderated by gender. For example,
Brockner and Adsit (1986) reported that men tend to be more sensitive to issues of distributive justice than
women.
On another note, respondents in their study were executives/managerial cadre employees limiting the
applicability to only a section of the organization rather than the general workforce. Managers are often tagged
with management and usually given some incentives that may have affected their in-role and extra role
performance. The present study targets both private and public workers (general work force) and a proportionate
male/female ratio to test the relationship between work climate and OCB.
In a survey conducted by Kangis, Gordon, and Williams (2000), organizational climate was found to be
positively related (p < 0.01) to corporate performance of employees in ‘above’ and ‘below’ average industrial
organizations. However, additional findings revealed that companies performing above average showed higher
values on organizational climate dimensions than those performing below average. From this study, it is quite
intriguing to ask whether organizational climate can relates to extra-role performance (OCB) and not just in-role
(corporate) performance. Kangis et al. (2000), concentrated on industrial organizations in his research on
Climate and a different outcome variable. The present study is conducted in a different organizational setting-
(banking sector) in Ghana to ascertain whether findings will be the same.

133
European Journal of Business and Management www.iiste.org
ISSN 2222-1905 (Paper) ISSN 2222-2839 (Online)
Vol.5, No.26, 2013

Guion (1973) argued that a perceived climate concerned both the attributes of an organization and those of the
perceiving individual and that as most often conceived, climate was simply an alternative label for affective
responses to organization. Borucki and Burke (1999), carried out a study to illustrate the idea that the leader or
supervisor tend to be a climate agent within the organization. In their study of climate, the importance of service
to managers was related to employee perceptions of the service climate. He concluded that managers and leaders
are largely responsible for communicating meaning. Naumann and Bennett (2000) in their recent study found
that agreement among workgroup members on climate was stronger when the supervisor was seen as visible in
implementing organizational procedures and enforcing policies.
In their research in South Africa, Castro and Martins (2009) tested the relationship between organizational
climate and job performance using a convenience sample of 696 employees from a population of 1453
employees working in three regions in which the organization was operational. The results indicated a strong
positive correlation (r = 0.813, p < 0.01) between organizational climate and the dependent variable of job
satisfaction. Castro and Martins (2009) suggested that line managers and human resource practitioners should be
aware that different biographical groups have different needs that can influence their work behavior and different
perceptions of the climate within the organization. These other work behaviors may include finding out how
climate impacts on employee’s willingness to go beyond their formerly prescribed roles.
Brown and Leigh (1996) examined the effects of climate dimensions of management support, clarity, self-
expression, contribution, recognition, and challenge. The outcome measures included three measures of
performance—sales volume, extent of technical knowledge, and administrative performance. The researchers
found that climate perceptions of support and contribution were significantly related to the various work
performance measures, whereas measures of self-expression and recognition were not. Given the extent of
Brown and Leigh’s (1996) dimensions, the present study aims at incorporating participative decision making,
level of autonomy, supportive leadership, goal congruence and professional growth to ascertain the extent to
which these dimensions relates to other work outcomes such as OCB.
Based on the literature reviewed and the objectives stated above, it is hypothesized that;
1. An employee’s perception of organizational climate will have a significant and positive relationship
with his/her displayed OCB in the Ghanaian setting.
Tenure and Organizational Citizenship Behaviour
It is often intuited that employees who remain in an organization longer gain more knowledge of their job and
the organization and thus perform at a higher level than employees with less tenure. Organizational tenure is a
common factor considered in administrative decisions such as offering promotions and awarding raises and other
fringe benefits (e.g., pensions, vacation days, use of organizational leisure facilities) (Cohen, 1993). Research by
Park and Sims (1989) studied whether OCB affected promotion decisions. They found out that OCB clearly was
linked to initial considerations for managerial positions.
Organ (1988) originally suggested that the higher the ranks of an organizational member, the more diffuse are
the expected role related obligation of that member. Employees who have stayed with their organizations for a
longer time are more likely to have embedded relationships (Rousseau & Parks, 1993). This view sees the
individual as identifying with the organization and, therefore, committed to maintaining membership to pursue
his or her goals. Longer-tenured employees are seen to have gained mastery and confidence in performing their
jobs and will likely exhibit positive attitude to work (Mowday, Porter, & Steers, 1982). Mowday et al. (1982)
also mentioned that longer-tenured employees report attitudes that generate legitimacy for their past behavior
and thus have stronger ties that yield OCB with their organizations.
Cohen (1993) argued from his meta-analysis that age and tenure are considered important correlates of
organizational commitment. The relation between OC and age was strongest for the oldest tenure subgroup but
weaker for younger tenure subgroup (Cohen & Lowenberg, 1990). Results demonstrate that the OC and tenure
relation is higher in the early age group (up to 6 years, r = 0.24) than for the total for the other career stages.
Cohen (1993) argues that in later career stages, not only do psychological and behavioral linkages operate to
produce commitment on the part of the individual, but structural variables such as investments and lack of
opportunity elsewhere may combine to cement the individual's attachment to the organization. Their longer
experience with the organization can lead to dissonance diminution through the development of affective
commitment to the organization. In a sense, Cohen (1993) attributes the seemingly discretionary acts to other
factors other than experiences acquired over the year. Reichers (1986) concluded that the commitment among
newcomers in organizations is partly so because behavioral and structural bonds may have not been developed

134
European Journal of Business and Management www.iiste.org
ISSN 2222-1905 (Paper) ISSN 2222-2839 (Online)
Vol.5, No.26, 2013

fully.
In a recent meta-analysis of the relationship between organizational tenure and three broad classes of job
behaviors: core-task behaviors, citizenship behaviors, and counterproductive behaviors. Ng and Feldman (2010)
combined data from 350 studies which included nearly 250,000 research participants. Ng and Feldman (2010)
studies revealed that tenure best predicts performance between 3 and 6 years within an organization. After about
14 years, tenure is completely unrelated to performance.
They also found that organizational citizenship behaviors are best predicted by tenure in the first three years of
employment. While there was modest positive association between organizational tenure and task performance
and organizational citizenship behaviors, the benefit of tenure appears to drop as tenure increases. The present
study runs contrary to the findings of Ng and Feldman (2010) by saying that there will be a significant positive
relationship between employees’ job tenure and OCB.
Meyer and Allen (1984) proposed weak relations between tenure and organizational outcome such as
performance and OCB. They argued that younger employees may be more committed because of their awareness
that, with less work experience, they often have fewer job opportunities. As they gain experience, alternate
employment opportunities may increase. This decreases the magnitude of the cost of leaving and that of having
no job. Meyer and Allen's explanation was supported by Mowday et al. (1982) and Rusbult and Farrell (1983)
who emphasized the importance of the availability of attractive alternative job opportunities. Unavailability of
jobs should prevent some negative attitudes toward the job and organization that would be possible if many
opportunities were available. This study predicts a positive relationship between an employees’ job tenure and
his willingness to go beyond the formal call of duty.
In their study of the organizational justice and organizational citizenship behaviors in the Portuguese context
with sample of 269 employees, Rego and Cunha (2009) found organizational tenure, schooling years, length of
supervisor–employee contact, and gender correlate significantly with some justice and OCB dimensions.
Contrary to the above researchers, Cho’s (2008) in explaining the relationship between distributive justice and
perceived organizational support revealed that, employee job experience was found to correlate positively with
OCB among the participants of the study. In view of this, the researchers proposed that:
2. There will be a significant positive relationship between Ghanaian bankers’ job tenure and OCB.
Method
Research Design
Correlational and cross-sectional survey research designs were employed to determine the relationship between
the independent variables (organizational tenure and organizational climate) and the dependent variable (OCB).
Given that data were collected from participants with different organizational tenure at a single point in time and
also the fact that the interest was to determine how tenure differences influence engagement in OCB, cross-
sectional survey design was found ideal. Similarly, the use of correlational research design was justified as the
researchers sought to determine the predictive relationship between perceived organizational climate and OCB.
The research was based on the quantitative approach because data were collected via standardized research
questionnaires.
Sample Size and Sampling Techniques
One Hundred and Fifty-two (152) participants were involved in the study. Convenience sampling method was
used to select the organizations and participants in the study. The organizations comprised banks and insurance
companies operating within the Greater Accra Metropolis of Ghana. The sample comprised participants of
different sex, marital status and educational levels. As shown in Table 1, the sample was predominantly made of
males (54.6%), with 45.4% being females. 64.5% of the participants were single while 35.5% were married. In
terms of education, the majority had tertiary education qualification (78.3%), 17.1% had postgraduate
qualification while 4.6% had secondary education qualification.

135
European Journal of Business and Management www.iiste.org
ISSN 2222-1905 (Paper) ISSN 2222-2839 (Online)
Vol.5, No.26, 2013

Table 1: Demographic Characteristics of Respondents

Variables Frequency Percent (%)

Sex: Male 83 54.6

Female 69 45.4

Marital Status: Married 54 35.5

Single 98 64.5

Highest level of Education: Secondary 7 4.6

Tertiary 119 78.3

Postgraduate 26 17.1

Total Number of Respondents (N=152)

Instruments
Organizational Climate perception of the bankers was measured with a 30-item scale by McMurray et al. (2004)
(α= 0.94) which was derived from Koys and DeCotiis (1991) organizational climate scale. The instrument
measures eight dimensions which reflect the kind of climate perceived in an organization. The dimensions were
arranged in the order as presented in the appendix. The eight dimensions included; Innovation (3 items),
Recognition (4 items), Autonomy (5 items), Trust (5 items), Fairness (3 items), Support (5 items), Cohesion (4
items) and Pressure (1 item). In the current study, responses were scored on a 7 point rating scale ranging from 1
(strongly agree) to 7 (strongly disagree). Sample items of the above questionnaire included ‘I schedule my own
work activities’, ‘my supervisor/manager is not likely to give a bad advice’ and ‘when I perform well, am
assured of being praised’ (α= 0.94).
OCB was measured with 19-item scale by Moorman and Blakely (1995) (α= 0.89). Items were scored on a
seven-point response format ranging from (1) ‘does not describe my behavior at all’ to (7) describes my
behaviour perfectly. Sample questionnaires included ‘I defend my organization when outsiders criticize it’ (α=
0.87).
Procedure
Institutional approval was sought through the Human Resource Department of the organizations involved in the
study. Permission was sought from the human resource departments of the various banks of interest. Once
permission was granted, the researcher sought specific demographical information about employees from the
Human Resources Departments of the organizations. This was to purposively select only those that met the
criteria for inclusion. In order to gain acceptance and make in-roads into the participants for the purpose of
collecting data, research agents who were workers and colleagues of the prospective respondents were identified
and briefed about the rationale for the study in each organization. As there is intense competition among
Ghanaian banks, employees become a bit incredulous about giving information to strangers (in this case
academic researcher) for fear it may be used against them by way of blackmail. The research assistant’s role
became very important since the respondent’s main concern was trust; whether they could trust the purpose for
which the information was collected. Hence, employees were contacted and briefed about the research, and their
voluntary participation was sought. The questionnaires were accompanied with information sheet which outlined
the purpose of the study, instructions for completing and returning the questionnaire as suggested by Babbie
(1998) and an envelope into which completed questionnaires were to be put and sealed. The envelops were
attached to ensure that, confidentiality of participants’ response was guarantee. Out of the 230 questionnaires
distributed, only 152 (66.1 % response rate) usable questionnaires were returned. Data collection lasted for six
weeks. The collected data was subjected to statistical analysis.
Pilot Study
The scales in this were pre-tested to determine their suitability and reliability for the study. This was done by

136
European Journal of Business and Management www.iiste.org
ISSN 2222-1905 (Paper) ISSN 2222-2839 (Online)
Vol.5, No.26, 2013

conducting a pilot study using a convenient sample of 30 employees from a bank. The result showed that, the
reliability coefficients obtained for the two instruments exceeded the acceptable threshold of 0.70 for statistical
analysis (Nunnally, 1978). The reliability values obtained for the scales were: Organizational Climate (α = 0.95)
and Organizational Citizenship Behaviour (α = 0.90).
Despite the general acceptance of the items on the scales, some participants expressed concern regarding the
meaningfulness of items on the organizational climate scale. Thus, some modifications were made to those items
to make them more meaningful. For instance, ‘my supervisor’ used by McMurray et al. (2004) was replaced
with ‘my supervisor/manager’. Also, item 27 which read ‘at my workplace, people pitch in to help each other
out’ was adjusted to read ‘at my workplace, people willingly help each other out’ in the present study. These few
modifications were made as a means of reducing the effect of method bias in survey research as suggested by
Podsakoff, MacKenzie, Lee and Podsakoff (2003).
Results
The major statistical tests used to analyze the hypotheses one and two was the Pearson Product-Moment
correlation coefficient test and standard multiple regression as the researcher sought to examine the relationship
between organizational climate, job tenure and OCB. However, the categorization schemes developed by Cohen
(1988) were used to interpret the magnitude of findings presented as correlation coefficients; the descriptors
were used as follows:

Table 1: Pearson’s Correlation Coefficient among the Demographic and Study Variables

Measures 1 2 3 4

Tenure -

Age .700** -

Organizational Climate .049 .113 -

OCB .074 .253** .273** -

**. Correlation is significant at 0.01 level (2-tailed)

Table 2: Results of Standard Multiple Regression Analysis for Organizational Climate as a Predictor of
OCB

Model B SE β β

1 (Constant) 83.516 5.206

Organizational Climate .124 .035 .273**

R2 = .132, **p < .01

As shown in Table 2, organizational climate significantly and positively predicted organizational citizenship
behaviour (β=.273, p<0.05). The overall model was found to be significant [F (1, 156) = 12.445, p < .01] with
organizational climate accounting for 13.2% of the variance in OCB.
Discussion
It is important that one considers the implications against the milieu of the findings of the present study. This
section discusses in-depth, the theoretical and practical implications of the study findings and elaborates on its
usefulness to organizational practitioners in their daily administration.
Successful organizations need employees who will do more than their usual job duties and provide performance

137
European Journal of Business and Management www.iiste.org
ISSN 2222-1905 (Paper) ISSN 2222-2839 (Online)
Vol.5, No.26, 2013

that is beyond expectations. The organization has to follow certain principles of Organizational Citizenship
Behavior to achieve its cooperate aims. These principles emerge as antecedents of OCB.
Underpinned by an exchange perspective of employment relationships, the present study investigated the
Ghanaian bankers’ perception of OC and Organizational Tenure on their willingness to engage in OCB for their
respective organization.
Perception of Organizational Climate and OCB
In hypothesis one, it was predicted that employee’s perception of organizational climate will have a significant
and positive relationship with his or her displayed OCB. This hypothesis was supported. This means that, when
employees perceive their organizational climate to be favorable, it results in increase in
OCB and vice versa; or increase perception of organizational climate was associated with increase in OCB and
vice versa. This finding is consistent with some past empirical evidence (e.g., Biswas & Varma, 2007; Ekvall,
1996; James et al., 2008; Kangis et al., 2000; Letwin & Stringer, 1968; Likert, 1967; Norman & Bennet, 2000;
Schneider, 1987; Schyns et al., 2008). This study corroborate very well with Biswas and Varma’s (2007) who
observed that an individual’s perception of climate in the organization has a significant positive impact on his or
her willingness to engage in OCB’s.
Support for this hypothesis was expected due to the changing nature of the Ghanaian work environment. For
quite a long time, it is observed that most Ghanaian organizations were characterized by top-down decision
making, with very high levels of formalization and centralization. Priority was given to strict adherence to one’s
job description. As Hofstede (2001) notes, such organizations tend to exist within cultures that are characterized
by high power distance (e.g., Ghana). The influx of multinational corporations (MNC) in the Ghanaian scene
partly due to the Oil Find, throws a challenge to all domestic Ghanaian companies to veer off from traditional
methods of managing employees. The pervasiveness of foreign organizations opens the door for availability of
new jobs and the stress introduced by the competitive environment are likely to result in a higher turnover,
absenteeism and change of jobs in many organizations. Clearly, it is critical that Ghanaian organizations review
their human resource policies and practices and go beyond simply establishing rules and regulations to create a
favorable climate where employees feel that they are valued and treated with respect. Priority should be given to
issues relating to innovation, support, employee recognition and autonomy to create favorable work climate.
Human resource practitioners are encouraged to put premium on policies and procedures that fosters employee-
friendly work environment that promotes extra-role performance.
Further, given Ghana’s rise on the world economic scene as a middle level income economy, it is imperious that
organizations wishing to sustain their competitiveness and growth levels need to pay attention to their
employees’ perceptions and beliefs. It is imperative that domestic Ghanaian establishments shove off rigid
bureaucratic procedures and pave way for flexibility and adaptiveness which enhance favourable climate
perception by employees.
Ghanaian companies should begin to appreciate the fact that the days when management philosophies were
thought best for the employees and was translated into policies and procedures are over. Individual needs and
aspirations should be given much credence (Biswas & Varma, 2007). According to Guion (1973), climate is
simply an alternative label for affective responses to organizations. It is recommended that human resource
policies and decisions be linked to the corporate strategy of the organization. In line with the findings of Kangis
et al. (2000), organizations desiring to perform ‘above average’ should show higher values on organizational
climate dimensions. Attention should be given to individual-oriented or group-oriented policies and practices
that encourage employee involvement, innovation and some measure of autonomy. All of these are hall mark of
a favorable climate that emphasizes on extra role performance.
The present finding agree with Kozlowski and Doherty (1989) who argued that leaders or supervisors serve as
interpretative filters of relevant organizational processes, practices and features for all group members,
contributing to the development of common climate perceptions. Naumann and Bennett (2000) was of the
opinion that a leaders actions and treatments of the general workforce regarding role clarity, level of autonomy
employees enjoy, amount of voice employees may have in making vital decisions in aggregate affects their
overall perception of climate. The verity that the leader plays an important role that affects the employees’
interpretation of the work setting cannot be under estimated.
From the Ghanaian perspective, it is likely that some cultural features accounted for the apparent role of the
leader in creating significant climate perception. It is possible that employees view their supervisor as a
representative of the organization and react toward the organization according to the way they feel treated by the

138
European Journal of Business and Management www.iiste.org
ISSN 2222-1905 (Paper) ISSN 2222-2839 (Online)
Vol.5, No.26, 2013

supervisor. Through consultation with subordinates, they develop the perception that the leader has considered
their interest and welfare in making vital decisions. Such acts by the leader elicit satisfaction which in-turn gets
reciprocated through performing of many beneficial citizenship behaviors. Managers in today’s competitive
terrain should act as such by paving way for innovation, creativity, employee development, involvement and
flexibility. This in my opinion will prevent what the researcher call
‘organizational entrapment’ of employees.
Organizational Tenure and OCB
In the second hypothesis, it was posited that there will be a significant positive relationship between employee’s
job tenure and OCB. The results of the study revealed no significant difference between a Ghanaian Banker’s job
tenure and OCB. What this means is that whether an employee is new or old does not influence his performance
of OCB from the Ghanaian setting. This finding contradicts empirical findings of Cho (2008), Cohen (1993),
Organ (1988) Rego and Cunha, (2009) and Reichers (1986). These researchers argued that there is a behavioral
and psychological linkage between an employee’s tenure and output at work. Reichers (1986) for instance
argued that new comers in organizations may not have acquainted themselves with the organizations structural
procedures leading to low levels of OCB. On a similar note, Organ’s conclusion that employees demonstrate a
wide variety of OCB more often upon reaching higher levels in the organization was disconfirmed. The results
of the present study also defies the findings of Mowday et al. (1982) that longer-tenured employees report
attitudes that generate legitimacy for their past behavior and thus have stronger ties with that yields OCB with
their organizations. There are several possible reasons accounting for the difference in results from the Ghanaian
context. The results of the present study dovetail with the suggestions of some preceding empirical researchers.
Considering the many unemployment and poor working conditions in Ghana, many employees feel dissatisfied;
it is not surprising tenure received little support in predicting OCB.
In agreement with Ng and Feldman (2010), tenure predicts performance between the first few years of
employment within an organization. According to them, the benefit of tenure appears to drop as tenure increases.
Meyer and Allen (1984) proposed a weak relationship between tenure and organizational performance and made
some suggestions that tend to offer backbone for the results of this hypothesis. They argued that younger
employees may be more committed because of their awareness that, with less work experience, they often have
fewer job opportunities. Such is the case in Ghana. In a sense, job entrapment causes many younger tenure
groups of employees to put up their best than experienced workers.
The high rate of unemployment in the Ghanaian context invigorates most employees to go beyond their normal
job requirement. Unavailability of jobs prevents some negative attitudes toward the job and organization. Such
newly employed workers perform OCB with the view of being retained after six months probationary period or
exert themselves as a way of being considered in the event of downsizing. Many newly employed and temporal
Ghanaian workers put in their best to avert the ‘last in first out’ (LIFO) principle contingent to downsizing or
folding up of organizations. In agreement with Meyer and Allen (1984), as employees gain experience, alternate
employment opportunities may increase. This decreases the magnitude of the cost of leaving and that of having
no job. This is especially the case in Ghana as the influx of foreign and MNCs offer longer-tenured and seasoned
employees the opportunity of being ‘poached’ and engaged.
The fact that tenure does not significantly predict OCB triggers many conclusions for most Ghanaian
organizations. It is imperative that human resource practitioners attach similar credence to newly employed or
temporal workers so to speak as do long serving employees. Instead of having an overwhelming treatment or
package for those who have been with the organization for long just for the sake of tenure, it is important
attention be given to hard work and performance. With Ghana’s surge for economic growth, it is ideal that
experience that accrues from an employee’s years of attachment with his organization be preferred as promotion
criteria to some positions as some positions require such requisite experience. It therefore beholds on the
Ghanaian policy makers to look into the unemployment and many other labor issues that reduced the potency
and efficiency that comes along with tenure as submitted by this study.
Limitations and Directions for Future Research
It was unfortunate all respondents of the present study coincidentally happened to be full time employees.
Considering the rapid transition from a regular to a temporary employment relationship in recent labor market,
the findings of this study may not generalize to the Ghanaian service sector in general. It is recommended that
future researchers incorporate temporal staff in the relationship.
In order to better understand organizational behavior and its association with other work related variables,

139
European Journal of Business and Management www.iiste.org
ISSN 2222-1905 (Paper) ISSN 2222-2839 (Online)
Vol.5, No.26, 2013

particularly from the standpoint of populations in emerging economies such as Ghana, a triangulated
methodological approach which combines both qualitative and quantitative methods of research is
recommended. By using qualitative methods such as interviews and open-ended questionnaires, respondents may
freely express their opinion on key aspects of fairness and climate perceptions they consider very essential and
unique to their work setting. In the same vein, qualitative methods can also be used to better understand the why
of an employee’s perception or behavior.
In conclusion, future researchers are urged to study the employment relationship in ways that seek to improve
both the lives of individual employees and the capabilities of organizations for which they have been employed
to serve. Future researches should therefore focuses on a more developed model that incorporates other relevant
antecedents and consequences of OCB in the African context. It should also be the intention of future researchers
to concentrate on capturing and interpreting the cultural discrepancies or commonalities of the concept of justice
and climate, and thus providing theory-based implications for the practitioners who manage workforce diversity.
The outcome of the study largely advocates that efforts to increase OCB and possibly many other organizational
outcomes should be focused on the supervisor or manager leadership behaviors in reflection of management
ideals which tend to build favorable climate and positive perceptions that yields many acts of OCB.
Summary and Conclusion
The engagement in OCB in organizations is driven by several factors. The researcher sought to find out the
extent to which organizational climate and organizational tenure of employees related with OCB. It was
observed that, organizational climate significantly and positively predicted engagement in OCB. However,
organizational tenure of employees did not significantly relate with OCB. The implications of the findings on
organizational practice and employee behaviour are greatly recognized. First, it is manifestly clear that, the
climate has the propensity to energize employees to engage in extra-role behaviours. Thus, creating, maintaining
and sustaining a positive workplace would greatly facilitate positive behaviours like OCB in organizations.

References
Aryee, S., & Chay, Y. W. (2001). Workplace justice, citizenship behavior, and turnover intentions in a union
context: Examining the mediating role of perceived union support and union instrumentality. Journal of
Applied Psychology, 86, 154-160.
Babbie, E. (1998). The Practice of social research. Belmoth, MA: Wadsworth Publishing.
Biswas, S., & Varma, A. (2007). Psychological climate and individual performance in India: test of a mediated
model. Employee Relations, 29(6), 664 – 676.
Blau, G. (1994). Testing a two-dimensional measure of job search behavior. Organizational Behavior and
Human Decision Processes, 59, 288-312.
Blau, M. P. (1964). Exchange and power in social life. New York: Wiley.
Borucki, C. C., & Burke, M. J. (1999). An Examination of service–related antecedents to retail store
performance. Journal of Organizational Behavior, 20, 943-962.
Brockner, J., & Adsit, L. (1986). The moderating impact of sex on the equity-satisfaction relationship: a field
study. Journal of Applied Psychology, 71, 585–590.
Brockner, J., & Wiesenfeld, B. M. (1996). An integrative framework for explaining reactions to decisions:
Interactive effects of outcomes and procedures. Psychological Bulletin, 120, 189–208.
Brown, S. P., & Leigh, T. W. (1996). A new look at psychological climate and its relationship to job
involvement, effort, and performance. Journal of Applied Psychology, 81, 358-68.
Castro, M., & Martin, N. (2009). The relationship between organizational climate and employee satisfaction in a
South African information and technology organization. SA Journal of Industrial Psychology, 36(1), 800-
809.
Cho, J. (2008). Organizational identification and perceived organizational support as mediators of the
procedural justice–citizenship behavior relationship: A cross-cultural constructive replication. Paper
presented at the meeting of the society for Industrial and Organizational Psychology. San Francisco,
California.
Cohen, A. (1993). Organizational Commitment and Turnover: A Meta-Analysis. The Academy of Management

140
European Journal of Business and Management www.iiste.org
ISSN 2222-1905 (Paper) ISSN 2222-2839 (Online)
Vol.5, No.26, 2013

Journal, 36(5), 1140-1157.

Cohen, A., & Lowenberg, G. (1990). A reexamination of the side-bet theory as applied to organizational
commitment: A meta-analysis. Human Relations, 43, 1015-1050.
Ekvall, G. (1996). Organizational Climate for Creativity and Innovation. European Journal of Management
Journal, 37, 656 – 669.
Guion, R. M. (1973). A note on organizational climate. Organizational Behavior and Human Performance, 9,
120-125.
Hofstede, G. (2001). Culture’s Consequences, 2nd ed., Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications.
James, J. R., Choi, C. C., Ko, C.- H. E., McNeil, P. K., Minton, M. K., Wright, M. A. & Kim, K. (2008).
Organizational and psychological climate: a review of theory and research. European Journal of Work and
Organizational Psychology, 17, 5-32.
Johannesson, R. E. (1973). Some Problems in the measurement of organizational climate. Organizational
Behavior and Human Performance, 10, 118-144.
Kangis, P., Gordon, D., & Williams, S. (2000). Organizational climate and corporate performance: An empirical
investigation. Management Decision, 38(8), 531.
Koys, D. J., & DeCotiis, T. A. (1991). Inductive measures of Psychological Climate. Human Relations, 44(3),
265-285.
Kozlowksi, S. W. J., & Doherty, M. L. (1989). Integration of climate and leadership: Examination of a neglected
issue. Journal of Applied Psychology, 74, 546-553.
Likert, R. L. (1967). The human organization. New York: McGraw-Hill.
Litwin, G., & Stringer, R. (1968). Motivation and organizational climate. Boston: Harvard University Press.
McMurray, A. J., Scott, D. R., & Pace, R. W. (2004).The relationship between organizational commitment and
organizational climate in manufacturing. Human Resource Development Quarterly, 15, 473-488.
Meyer, J. P., & Allen, J. N. (1984). Testing the side bet theory of organizational commitment: Some
methodological considerations. Journal of Applied Psychology, 69, 372-378.
Moorman, R. H., & Blakely, G. L. (1995). Individualism-Collectivism as an individual difference predictor of
organizational citizenship behavior. Journal of organizational Behavior, 16(2), 127-142.
Mowday, R. T., Porter, L. M., & Steers, R. M. (1982). Employee-organizational linkage. New York: Academic.
Naumann, S. E., & Bennett, N. (2000). A case for procedural justice climate: Development and test of a multi-
level model. Academy of Management Journal, 43, 881-889.
Ng, T.W.H., & Feldman, D.C. (2010). Organizational tenure and job performance. Journal of Management,
36(5), 1220-1250.
Nunnally, J. C. (1978). Psychometric theory (2nd ed.). New York: McGraw-Hill.
Organ, D. W., & Ryan, K. (1995). A meta-analytic review of attitudinal and dispositional predictors of
organizational citizenship behavior. Personnel Psychology, 48, 775-802.
Organ, D. W. (1988). Organizational citizenship behaviour: The good soldier syndrome. Lexington, MA:
Lexington Books.
Park, O. S., & Sims, H. P. (1989). How subordinate prosocial behavior influences performance ratings. Paper
presented at the National Academy of Management Meeting, Washington, DC.
Podsakoff, P., MacKenzie, S. B., Lee, J., & Podsakoff, N. (2003). Common method Biases in behavioral
research: A critical review of the literature and recommendation remedies. Journal of Applied Psychology,
88, 879-903.
Rego, A., & Cunha, M. P. (2009). Organizational citizenship behaviors and effectiveness: An empirical study in
two small insurance companies. Service Industries Journal, 28(4), 541–554.
Reichers, A. E. (1986). Conflict and organizational commitment. Journal of Applied Psychology, 71, 508-514.
Rusbult, C. E., & Farrell, D. (1983). A longitudinal test of the investment model: The impact on job satisfaction,
job commitment and turnover of variations in rewards, costs, alternatives and investments. Journal of

141
European Journal of Business and Management www.iiste.org
ISSN 2222-1905 (Paper) ISSN 2222-2839 (Online)
Vol.5, No.26, 2013

Applied Psychology, 68, 429-438.

Schneider, B. (1987). The people make the place. Personnel Psychology, 40, 437-454.
Schneider, B. (1990). The climate for service: An application of the construct. In B. Schneider (Ed.),
Organizational climate and Culture (pp 383-412). San Francisco: Jossey Bass.
Schneider, B. (2000). The psychological Life of organizations. In N. M. Ashkanasky, C. P. M. Wilderom, & M.
F. Peterson (Eds.), Handbook of organizational culture and climate (pp. xvii-xxi). Thousand Oaks, CA:
Sage.

142
 This academic article was published by The International Institute for Science,
Technology and Education (IISTE). The IISTE is a pioneer in the Open Access
Publishing service based in the U.S. and Europe. The aim of the institute is
Accelerating Global Knowledge Sharing.

More information about the publisher can be found in the IISTE’s homepage:
http://www.iiste.org

CALL FOR JOURNAL PAPERS

The IISTE is currently hosting more than 30 peer-reviewed academic journals and
collaborating with academic institutions around the world. There’s no deadline for
submission. Prospective authors of IISTE journals can find the submission
instruction on the following page: http://www.iiste.org/journals/ The IISTE
editorial team promises to the review and publish all the qualified submissions in a
fast manner. All the journals articles are available online to the readers all over the
world without financial, legal, or technical barriers other than those inseparable from
gaining access to the internet itself. Printed version of the journals is also available
upon request of readers and authors.

MORE RESOURCES

Book publication information: http://www.iiste.org/book/

Recent conferences: http://www.iiste.org/conference/

IISTE Knowledge Sharing Partners

EBSCO, Index Copernicus, Ulrich's Periodicals Directory, JournalTOCS, PKP Open

Archives Harvester, Bielefeld Academic Search Engine, Elektronische
Zeitschriftenbibliothek EZB, Open J-Gate, OCLC WorldCat, Universe Digtial
Library , NewJour, Google Scholar

View publication stats